All News

Michael “at  the wheel”.

Michael Ware is our top master-point earner, a regular New Zealand international player and currently on a rich run of success, as at last weekend’s Wellington Main Regional Teams. Let’s take a look at Michael “at work”.

 

 The bidding was a little more complex than it appears. 1 promised 4+ hearts and 11-20 hcp. 1 was at least game invite. 2 showed 6+ hearts with less than 4 diamonds. 3 was invitational.

Michael commented that with trump support, the East hand was better than the average 11 count…hence the raise to game. North led a trump which collected South’s Q. Michael drew trumps in 2 more rounds with South discarding two low diamonds. With the East hand as dummy and West's shape unknown, that seemed to be the safest suit to discard. It looked like the fate of the contract depended on which defender held A.

These were the four hands:

 

 Michael played two more rounds of trumps, South discarding 4 and a third diamond. Michael, West, discarded two diamonds and North 5 (low encouraging) as their first discard and then 8. The outlook thus looked bleak as North seemed to hold A.

Michael cashed AK and played a diamond to his now singleton A, collecting South’s now bare Q before ruffing a club with dummy’s last trump.

These cards remained:

Michael was in the East hand having taken the first 9 tricks (6 hearts, AK and A) and exited with a small diamond to North, discarding a spade from the West hand. North could cash two high diamonds but had to give Michael his K at trick 13.

Certainly, South could have kept one more diamond and one less spade which would meant the diamond exit could have been won by South. However, in a contract which basically had no play, Michael gave himself the best chance of making and did so thanks to South's failure to keep a second diamond. 12 imps to Michael’s team when the same contract failed on Q lead at the other table.

Michael was the only West to declare this contract and was the only player to come to 10 tricks. After the lead of 10 from South and a spade continuation, the contract cannot be made as long as South does not discard a club.

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items